Many people suffering from Adult-onset Macular Degeneration (AMD) have damage to the Macula that has repositioned the Fovea (center of the Macula) causing a new visual-axis to be slightly offset from the original (normal) visual-axis. This is very common in older people. The result in many cases is double vision. Double vision occurs when the image that one eye sees does not coincide with the image that the other eye sees when looking with both eyes at the same time at the same physical object, making it appear that there are two of everything in the field of view of the Macula and Fovea. The brain can accommodate for slight differences, but, when the offset becomes too great for the brain to accommodate—double vision results. Peripheral vision is not affected by AMD.
Many AMD patients still have relatively good acuity in the AMD eye but the offset of the visual-axis still results in double vision. For patients with AMD in both eyes, the result most likely will be double vision. AMD sufferers have to find their own method of coping with the problem of reading. One way to cope is to close one eye while reading with the eye having the best acuity. This quickly becomes tiring. Another method is to wear an eye-patch instead of closing the eye. The eye-patch interferes with reading glasses making that option also unsatisfactory. A problem with both methods is that the person looses the peripheral vision in that eye. Loosing peripheral vision can actually be dangerous if the person is reading in a dangerous industrial setting where it is important to see danger approaching with the periphery of ones vision. There has always been a need for a more satisfactory way of improving the reading ability of such individuals.